Martial Arts Mash-Up ‘Boy Kills World’ Has Strong Cast But Too Much Gore

Martial Arts Mash-Up ‘Boy Kills World’ Has Strong Cast But Too Much Gore

By Lynn Venhaus

An ultra-violent wild and woolly “Boy Kills World” benefits from a strong cast, wit, and flashy moves, but is hurt by its lack of restraint.

While destined to be a cult classic among genre fans, it’s just too much excess in every way to take it seriously as a narrative feature when it’s clearly a gonzo video game.

Had first-time director Moritz Mohr and his screenwriting partners Tyler Burton Smith, a video game writer, and Arend Remmers, toned down the sickening and savage splatter-fest, it could have been entertaining in a “John Wick” meets “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” way.

It’s based on Mohr’s same-titled short film that he wrote. With its high-body count, severed limbs and gushing blood, it’s a tough watch.

The action thriller is set in a dystopian future, where the deranged matriarch of an evil dynasty stages “The Culling,” a brutal organized thinning of the dissident herd. Think “The Hunger Games” and “The Purge.”

Emulating Hong Kong action films in a cartoonish and comic-book way, our hero, simply named Boy, is driven by vengeance. As a youth, he witnessed his mother and sister killed in the annual televised spectacle. He is trained by a mentor and grows up to become a martial art killing machine. Think “Kill Bill.”

In this post-apocalyptic world, Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen) executes people who are a ‘threat’ to their way of life.

Now grown, Bill Skarsgard is the buff assassin who is deaf and mute from the torture he endured. He has repressed his vivid imagination to become an instrument of death.

His part is narrated by H. Jon Benjamin, who voices Bob on “Bob’s Burgers,” and that’s an inspired move.  So is the boy talking to his sister’s ghost — Mina is played charmingly by Quinn Copeland.

The mysterious shaman Yayan Ruhian has prepared him for a showdown with this insane totalitarian regime, which besides Janssen, includes Michelle Dockery (“Downtown Abbey”!!!), Sharlto Copley as her idiot husband game show host Glen and a very funny Brett Gelman, of “Stranger Things,” as hard-drinking Gideon.

Jessica Rothe, who made a good impression in “Happy Death Day 2 U,” is their ruthless soldier assassin called “June 27.”

Boy’s resistance group pals are played by Andrew Koji and Isaiah Mustafa, and they have a stand-out scene slicing and dicing in a “winter wonderland’ TV set.

“Do you know how hard it is to get a cereal company to sponsor mass murder?” Melanie screams after things go horribly awry.

Mohr confidently and cheekily directed this fever dream in an over-the-top style that will appeal to all short-attention-span viewers. He unleashes torrents of carnage, like a demented Nickelodeon employee dousing folks with slime, only here it’s buckets of fake blood.

Dawid Szatarski, a fight coordinator who has worked on such films as “Kingsman: The Secret Service” and “Wonder Woman,” designed the fight choreography, and it is a barrage of fast moves and gruesome injuries, captured by stylish camerawork from cinematographer Peter Matjasko, with crisp editing by Lucian Barnard.

The stunt work is exceptional, as expected. If the film weren’t so off-putting with its gore for gore’s sake, it could have had some lasting merit, especially with some of the inspired characters, but it’s just exhaustive fighting from start to finish for 1 hour, 55 minutes.

The plot takes a sharp hairpin turn midway that may not work for viewers, but this film’s audience is there for the mayhem. The director has jumbled a bunch of styles from different films, given it a graphic novel sheen, and presented this slaughter with the mind-numbing and relentless action of a video game.

Produced by Sam Raimi, this work premiered at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“Boy Kills World” is a 2023 action thriller directed by Moritz Mohr and starring Bill Skarsgard, Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Jessica Rothe, Yayan Ruhian and Michelle Dockery. It is rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, language, some drug use and sexual references, and runtime is 1 hour, 55 minutes. It opened in theatres April 26. Lynn’s Grade: C-.

MCU Crisscrosses Superheroes, Alternate Realities, But Lacks Emotional Punch In ‘Doctor Strange’

MCU Crisscrosses Superheroes, Alternate Realities, But Lacks Emotional Punch In ‘Doctor Strange’

By Lynn Venhaus
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” should be titled “The Madness of the Multiverse” instead, for expect a mélange of the mystical, the mind-bending, the mysterious – and the messy — in the long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel.

Dense Marvel superhero lore is its imprint, for where the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been and where it wants to go is factored into each of their movies, tying things together (but these days, keeping up is getting to be a bigger chore in a very crowded field).

This latest entry picks up where the superior smash-hit “Spider-Man: No Way Home” left off, and it helps if you saw it – and the innovative 2021 limited series “WandaVision” on Disney+ .Dr. Stephen Strange cast a forbidden spell that opens the doorway to the multiverse, including alternate versions of himself, and pushes the boundaries in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”  

“Doctor Strange 2” is very inside for Marvel fanatics, who delight with every surprise and cameo, but for the casual viewers, it’s a struggle to sustain interest when things aren’t exploding or moving fast through different realities (or fantasies, take your pick).

The commanding Benedict Cumberbatch reprises his role as smart, sophisticated, sardonic surgeon Stephen Strange, whose origin story in 2016 was one of the best surprises of that year.

The medical marvel turned weird wizard has gone on to appear in the final two “Avengers” films – was among those lost in the ‘blip’ – and then played a major role in the third Tom Holland-led Spidey, where he messed with reality (“I did what I had to do”) and caused cataclysmic events.

This next MCU chapter connects other comic-book characters, those we’ve seen before and new to the screen, as well as presenting alternate versions of themselves, as the multiverse gets more of a workout. Cumberbatch gets to have three looks, including a grotesque zombie-like creature, but usually struts or flies around in his double-duty red cape looking powerful.

Elisabeth Olsen as Wanda

This sequel cuts to the chase right away, but then eventually breaks down in logic because the trippy visuals overtake the storytelling. This results in just another computer-generated spectacle overstuffed with electrical currents, disgusting monsters with gigantic tentacles, flying chunks of concrete and portals leading to other universes and dimensions.

Directed by the inventive Sam Raimi, a horror film auteur mostly known for the creepy and campy “Evil Dead” movies, he puts the dark in‘the dark hold,” heaps more fire and brimstone on, and adds more blood and gore to his Marvel canvas.

This is his first superhero movie since the Spider-Man trilogy he did with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in 2002, 2004 and 2007, and his first movie since the disappointing “Oz the Great and Powerful” in 2013.

The cast is fine — stalwart Benedict Wong returns as “Sorcerer Supreme” Wong, Rachel McAdams plays the good doctor’s ex-girlfriend Christine with a new role in one of the parallel universes, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez is the plucky America Chavez who can traverse between the universes. They also walk in and out of dreams.

The Illuminati is mentioned – which used to mean a secret society supposedly masterminding current events and conspiring to control world affairs, but now has other superheroes in the mix (?).

Besides battling big ugly demons, Strange’s main nemesis is The Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff, who yearns to be a mother to two little boys in an alternate reality, but can’t because the good doctor won’t let her upset the universe further. Chaos ensues, but what is the end game exactly? Wanda has been good before, but now she is bad. Elisabeth Olsen is compelling showing both sides of the conflicted character.

The very name “science fiction” implies that it will bend time and space and logic as we know it, but it must make some sort of sense for people to be able to follow it.

Michael Waldron’s script is cumbersome in translating the comic book characters created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for the big green screen treatment. And while the visuals get high marks, the emotional connections needed to elevate the film aren’t there. And what is the “Book of Vishanti” anyway?

Waldron, who created “Loki,” tries to juggle too many characters, realities, magic mumbo-jumbo and constant leaping through time and space to have any kind of linear cohesiveness. While it’s fun to journey to a few different worlds in this genre, this is an overload that ardent fans will embrace — but others not so much.

I can’t tell where this genre adventure is going, but I’m caring less and less. Initially intrigued by the Doctor Strange character six years ago, have we come to the end of the road, or can he stand out enough moving forward?

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is a 2022 action-adventure superhero sequel directed by Sam Raimi and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elisabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Xochitl Gomez. Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images and some language, it runs 2 hours, 6 minutes. Opens in theatres May 6. Lynn’s Grade: C.